What do you do with your yard waste (i.e. grass, weeds, small branches, leaves and plant clippings)? Do you compost? Do you bag it for curbside pickup? Rentech, a Realto, California company will take your organic waste and put it to good use—productive renewable energy use. Rentech plans to work with green waste hauling contractors to collect this woody green organic waste and manufacture it into a new fuel “which burns cleanly in engines that use diesel fuel.”
There is also a partnership in Naperville, Illinois, between City of Naperville, Packer Engineering, Argonne National Laboratory and the College of DuPage that is working on collecting yard clippings to produce renewable energy. A “green depot” will be set up to manufacture the organic waste into a useful renewable fuel. Naperville City Councilman, Robert Fiesler explains,
“At first, the depot would be used mostly to generate electricity to fuel plug-in hybrid vehicles or supplement the city’s municipal electric system.”
For detailed information on these upcoming innovative projects, visit these sites:
Contact your local waste collectors to see if you can implement a yard waste renewable energy program. Now that would be a fantastic Earth Promise!
Nathan is on the road. On May 10, 2009, Lancaster, Pennsylvania native, Nathan Winters hopped on his bike to unite his love of nature with his love of exploration hoping to draw attention to support the conservation of land and nature. Belfast, Maine was his launching point and he’ll finish across the continent in Seattle.
